The Transition Town movement is growing quickly in Vermont. By my count, 14* cities or towns have adopted the “Transition Town” moniker, even if they’re just taking the first steps. And Transition Town Montpelier made national news in May, with the nation’s first vegetable garden at a State House or Capitol. We’re just beginning the Transition from oil dependency to community resilience, but we’re moving!   

Transition Town White River Junction (TTWRJ) has been one of the more active groups. Kye Cochran filled me in on the group’s activities. Kye works as general manager of the Upper Valley Food Co-op by day and is part of the initiating group of TTWRJ by night. She attended the Transition Town training in Montpelier in March.   

The initiating group has been meeting weekly, she reports. Nine to 11 people attend, many of them young and all of them energetic. (Weekly meetings seem to be important for Transition Town projects; the most successful ones I’ve been involved with in the last year have met this frequently.)   

The first meeting open to the public was May 8 and was attended by 35-40 people. The organizers showed the video, The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil (an excellent 55-minute introduction to Peak Oil and how one country has adapted). They then asked each participant to write on Post-It notes “one thing I can do” to facilitate Transition, one thing White River Junction can do, one thing “I envision for post-oil White River,” and one other idea.   

TTWRJ is ready to start forming groups working on various aspects of the transition, which they’re scheduled to do at a June 12 meeting. Cochran says there is a cadre passionate about transportation, so she expects that to be one of the initial groups.    

They’ve also begun planning a permaculture makeover of their landscape. There’s a lively community garden group in White River Junction, and in the last year it has expanded from eight subscriptions to 25. The Transition Town group is working on a different type of community garden: fruit trees and bushes that will belong to everyone. They have permission to use a small piece of land on Main Street, and they plan to conduct work parties to clean up the land and plant the trees and bushes.   

The arts community is strong in White River Junction, and that shows in TTWRJ’s postering for its events. Cochran reports that the poster for the first event was beautiful, and they were just going out with teasers for the second event. Small posters, about the size of a bumper sticker, have one of six different messages on them, plus TTWRJ’s name and web site. Cochran said her favorite teaser poster reads, “Transition: It’s like change, only better.”   

“People in White River Junction tend to be cynical and witty,” Cochran says. “They really like to have a good time. It’ll be fun to see what Transition Town White River Junction comes up with.”   

As of this writing, TTWRJ’s web site is rudimentary, but it does have a word cloud from the May 8 brainstorming exercise and the information for their next meeting. Perhaps by the time you read this, it will have information about the results of the June 12 meeting: http://ttwrj.org.

* Bennington (Walloomsac), Brattleboro, Burlington, Charlotte, Chelsea/Tunbridge (Sustainable First Branch), Colchester, Hardwick, Hartland, Manchester, Montpelier, Shelburne, St. Johnsbury, White River Junction, Worcester.

The next Vermont training for Transition Town organizers is in Montpelier, July 25-26. Details (and other Transition-related events) are at www.transitionvermont.ning.com or call 456-8122.

Carl Etnier is director of Peak Oil Awareness in Montpelier. He hosts two radio shows and blogs on the subjects of Peak Oil and relocalizing.